HOUSTON -- Authorities say a Texas death row inmate with a history of mental problems has gouged out his only good eye.

Andre Thomas told officers that he ate it.

The 25-year-old inmate was on death row for the fatal stabbing of his 13-month-old daughter, Leyha Marie Hughes. He was also accused of fatally stabbing his 20-year-old estranged wife Laura Christine Boren and their 4-year-old son Andre Lee in March 2004, then ripping out the hearts of all three.

While in the Grayson County Jail in Sherman before his trial, Thomas similarly had plucked out his right eye. A judge subsequently ruled he was competent to stand trial.

Now, a death-row officer at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has found Thomas in his cell with blood on his face and took him to the prison infirmary.

According to agency spokesman Jason Clark, "Thomas said he pulled out his eye and subsequently ingested it."

Thomas was treated at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler after the December 9th incident. Then he was transferred and remains at a prison psychiatric facility near Houston.